gay adj. happy

The Lepage Primary school in Melbourne has removed the world gay from Australia's iconic song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree", to stop children tittering when they sing it. The school's head, Garry Martin, said he did not mean to insult gay people by replacing the word "gay" in the chorus, with the word "fun". He added, "if we sing 'Gay your life must be' the kids will roll around the floor in fits of laughter,".

The song goes:-

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Merry merry king of the bush is he.
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!

There are other alternative versions though:-

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Eating all the gum drops he can see.
Stop Kookaburra, stop Kookaburra
Save some there for me!

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,
Counting all the monkeys he can see.
Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra
That's not a monkey, that's me!

Kookaburra sits on the electric wire,
Jumping up and down, with his pants on fire.
Ouch, Kookaburra, ouch! Kookaburra,
Hot your tail must be!

Kookaburra sits on a rusty nail,
Gets a boo-boo in his tail.
Cry, Kookaburra, cry, Kookaburra,
Oh how life can be!

The end of the word as we know it

The publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press , have said that the latest edition may not be printed.

Yes, after more than twenty years of publication, e-dictionaries and reference websites have put paid to a British institution. A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition since 1989, with no confirmed completion date in sight. The book is only 28 per cent finished, and publication could be as far away as 10 years from now, or never...

Keep on learning

Before you decide to drop out of school, college or university, consider this: according to a report published last month in the journal Brain, people with higher levels of education cope better with the damage to the brain associated with old age. Basically, people with more education suffer less from dementia.

So, keep on learning.

What we've been talking about - Walmart

We've been talking about WalMart.

Today's reading was taken from: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

We'll be discussing some of the issues raised in the article.

How much is too much?
Are we shopping ourselves out of jobs?

Here are some links:-

http://www.walmart.com/
http://jobs.lovetoknow.com/Wal-Mart_Jobs
http://mises.org/daily/2219

What we've been talking about - Whale Nation

We've been discussing the Heathcote Williams' poem "Whale Nation".